The Magic Stories {Review}

Having two younger children who are both in the early stages of reading and writing, I am always on the look out for materials that will encourage them to grow strong in these areas. The Magic Stories, comes from Allsaid & Dunn, LLC, who you might know from The Reading Game and the Wordly Wise series, is designed for second or third graders (or struggling readers, that’s us!) with six stories in the set. This is a fun, supplemental program, full of stories that make reading super enjoyable and they are short enough too, for children enjoy all in one sitting. A truly wonderful way to encourage and inspire our young ones in reading, comprehension and so much more! These stories were created as a follow up to The Reading Game, but even if you never used that, you can still have lots of fun with these stories.

Who doesn’t love the idea of a magic hotdog? I know my son (eight and a lover of hot dogs; also struggling but loving reading) was instantly interested! Each story is approximately 20 pages long, illustrated with black and white images (your children can color these if they like) and four worksheets to complete including an assessment pre and post book.

Included in the set is:

The Magic Hole
The Magic Ax
The Magic Joke
The Magic Hotdog
The Magic Boots
The Magic Box

Typically we really are not fans of worksheets but the ones that come with these stories, my son really looked forward to these! Even my other kids wanted to complete a worksheet or two. One of my son’s favorite things right now is doing mazes and so he was thrilled every time he got to complete one! But these are not your typical kind of mazes either. 🙂

magicstories-graphic-w-exercises_zpsffbkcmta

One worksheet requires you to complete the sentence – in your own words! Can you remember why Kim was terribly shocked? What did Nan find while trying to mend that jacket?

Then Imagine! you are in the story yourself – what would you do? How would you stop the king’s laughing?

Lastly, write your own story, (the exciting sequel!) using your imagination. They even provide a couple paragraphs, just in case you need help getting started.

Each story includes a list of 40 Naughty Words. These lists are meant to be used as flashcards. And these are not what you might think they are! These naughty words in this list are simply those words that so many children struggle with when reading.

As we read each story we printed the cards, laminated them, and then would review them periodically. As you review them more and more, you see your children gaining confidence so that the stories become even more fun for them to read!

I never heard of The Reading Game myself prior to this review but I wish I had. I am actually planning on using this with my younger two who are not yet reading (one is on her way to beginning though!). Certainly you can use one without the other but I can definitely see how much can be gained if both are used. 🙂

There were also quite a number of free resources, available on their website.

We made sure to download and print out all of the stories and the resources that came with this. You can certainly read these online but my younger son, like his momma, prefers to read something tangible. We just like being able to see and turn the pages; smell the ink – is that strange? If you want to enjoy these books as well, be sure to use the discount code “raising reader” for a 25% discount on The Magic Stories.

Since he does struggle with reading, I made these stories ones that he would read aloud to me. This way he can exercise his independence, gain confidence, but also have my assistance in areas that cause trouble for him. And certainly there were times that he needed a bit of help with pronunciation. Of course he also just enjoyed having someone to talk to when he came across something in one of the stories that made him “laugh so hard he busted his gut.”

We certainly have enjoyed our time with this one! In fact we have read a number of the stories more than once. I love how there are good, solid moral woven into these stories. My son loves how vivid the stories are – his imagination has never been better – he has a great sense of humor too so he really enjoyed how often these made him chuckle. Combine great stories with worksheets that require you to be creative and at the same time, focused on those details within the story, I say that makes this a real winner! We just wish they had more stories for us to enjoy together!

a Rafflecopter giveaway